Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-10-15

if | had penetrated the mysterious
experiment. l asked, shaking my head:
'And whyP Is there anything in
his house TO conceaiP'
The eldest sister, who had returned,
shook her head in denial. 1t was no
wonder. He was her husband, | sup
pose. / looked at Ellen and Addie.
They looked away. They never looked
as lovely, at least to me. For they
would not tell a lie and they trusted
me-"
"Well. / heard no more of the stran-
ger, and things ran On rs before for IA
week or two. Then there came re-
peated rumors of the guerillas in the
neighborhOod, and we began TO take
extra precautions. continued to call
daily at the Sunderlands, and one af-
~ternoon as | was going away Ellen
seemed particularly i'll at ease. She
was nervous, %hesitating, and altogether
unlike herself. ] said good bye to her
at the porch and went out to my horse.
AS | was about TO mount she came out
of the house toward me bearing a long
rich crimson scarf, with fine tassels Of
white silk at either end. She held it
out to nae, saying:
"Will you wear this-for meP"
IL cannot rob you | said. Outside
of the guitar, l believe il was the emily
thing Of any value that she had left in
the world
.DIo,aa -n.~ - ~ aha en;l AID
while | hesitated she deity put it
around my neck, and before | suspect
ed had put aer arms around. too, and
had kissed me squarely on the lips.
AS | looked at her, quite staggered. in
an altogether happy state of surprise.
. the tears sprang to her eyes, she turned
away and went hastily into the house,
II rode down the road slowly. Her
conduct was so strange, the memory OF
that kiss, the first and last she ever
gave me, was SO tenacious that it drove
everything else out Of my mind. My
rein fell upon my horses neck, and if
there had been a hostile sharpshoster
or u Confederate troop any where about
| would have been an easy prey. | had
five men with me, but they had gone
further up the road and | did not wait
for them. | rode thoughtfullv along
during most of the way for four miles.
Finally approached The Gap the
place of which | spoke, the darkest and
most secluded section Of the whole dis
lance.
LAS / entered it / heard some one
calling behind me. In a little while |
recognized Josh, my negro cook, who
had been visiting some plantation. He
was afraid, | suppose, and wanted
protection, though he made some 9th
er excuse for calling. | re'ned up in
the shade of a big fir by a white fallen
trunk in the Gap and waited for him;
waited perhaps five minutes. | sat
twisting the tassels of the scarf and
thinking of Ellen. ! was an easy mark
as | sat there, a dead shot for any man
in hiding who had ever locked along Il
gun barrel.
Then. with Josh q short distance
behind, / %journeyed onward. l stopped
at a plantation some miles further
down and waited for my men. They
did not come. / went back to camp,
got q detachment. and went out to look
for them. We found them all IN the
Gap. They lay in the road in the shad-
ow of the big fir, by the white fallen
trunk, riddled with bullets from a
guerilla ambush. and had beer shot
dead from their saddles not ten min
utes after | passed the spot"
There was a silence for some minutes
as the listeners gathered his meaning
Finally one suggested:
you probably kept that scarf"
well, rather. 1t saved my life to a
certainty. [ never saw her again, fog
our orders took us away that. But
The commander-in-chief, by slow
and deliberate puffs, relighted his ex-
tinguished cigar. New York Times.